I CAN LIVE DIFFERENTLY
Susan Murray
Today’s Scripture: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Galatians 2:20a, ESV
Theme: The old life slowly dies as the new life grows.
OLD LIFE
My past can haunt me. I can ruminate on failures and wish I could have one more “do over.” The same old, bad habits seem to linger, and I can’t shake them off. I’m stuck with feeling awful, weighed down by what I can’t change. I can’t change the past and I can’t change me. I can relate to Paul when he says, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (sin nature). For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing” (Romans 7:18-19, ESV). In myself, I am powerless to live the right life that God calls to me. I can’t keep all of God’s laws, nor can I keep all the good “self-rules” like eating less and exercising to lose weight. Trying hard and making new resolutions just doesn’t work. That old self—the sin nature—just needs to go away so I can do things right. But how?
NEW LIFE
Paul did not stay stuck in this way of thinking, and neither do I. What is the hope for change: real change, sustained change? Paul gives us the answer just a little further down in his letter to the Romans: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7: 25, ESV). I can have a new and different life through Christ, but what does that mean exactly?
Our verse today says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” So that means death, a daily death (Luke 9:23). Death to what? For me, it means death to keeping the rules as the way to feel okay about myself. The basis of my worth is not on my performance of doing good things right, but based on Chris’s perfect performance, living a perfect life. After Christ died, He was resurrected to a new life. The power that raised Christ to life again is now mine and yours. We can live differently, not by keeping laws but by trusting in the only One who did. I can put on the new life by remembering the Gospel. Then, obedience becomes possible.
BUT GRADUAL
Have you ever seen a child grow, in real time, while watching them? No, of course not. It’s too slow, too gradual. But I bet you have seen someone place a child, standing tall, against the wall and then marking their height. Then we can see from prior markings that they have grown. Well, just as infants take time (a long time!) to grow into adults, the same is true with our spiritual growth. It takes time. And just as kids need the good nourishment of food and loving care to grow up, we need the good nourishment of the Gospel. In John 6:48, Jesus says He is the Bread of Life. To grow into this new life, we need first to continue to repent and believe in Jesus. Reading our Bibles, praying, giving, and receiving love in a community of others is the means by which we grow.
John Newton, a previous slave trader in the 18th century was saved, later becoming an Anglican minister. When tormented by his past, he would say said, “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am."
Make It Personal: What are you struggling with today? Is it guilt over past failures, bad habits that won’t go aways, lingering anxiety, anger, or depression? It can be any hurt, habit, or hang up. Stop “trying harder” and preach the Gospel to yourself; the Good News that Jesus lived the perfect life you could not and cannot live even now. The Good News that He also died in your place to pay for your inability to live rightly.
Pray: Dear God, I have failed in so many ways, leaving me filled with guilt. But I know that I don’t have to live in this old way of doing things right to be okay and acceptable to You. I am OK and acceptable to You only because Jesus did everything right. He died in my place, then rose again. Help me to grasp and trust You, knowing that You will change me and make me grow in obedience to You. Amen.
Read: Galatians 3:1-9; Romans 8: 1-11; Ephesians 3:14-19
Weekly Memory Verse: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11, ESV